Young children and incontinent adults wear disposable undergarments to absorb and contain bodily exudates. Toilet training is the process by which a child makes the transition from wearing diapers to wearing underwear. During the toilet training process, the child learns to control his or her bodily functions so that the child may relieve itself in a toilet rather than soiling an undergarment. Training pants are primarily used to facilitate toilet training by acquainting the child with an undergarment that is distinguishable from diapers and similar to underwear so that the child will associate controlling its bodily functions with wearing the new undergarment. Not only are disposable training pants less bulky than disposable diapers, but the manner of dressing and undressing, i.e., inserting the wearer's legs in the leg openings and sliding the pants onto the lower torso and doing the reverse to remove them, is identical to underwear. Thus, the child becomes accustomed to taking down and pulling up the training pants in order to use the toilet.
Accidents are, however, inevitable during the toilet training process; therefore, it is essential that training pants can be quickly and easily removed. In this way, disposable training pants are similar to disposable diapers because the pants may be opened and removed from the child without pulling the child's legs through the pants which could, and often does, result in smearing excrement or urine on the child. Once removed, disposable training pants are discarded; disposable training pants are not designed to be laundered or reused.
Because children are different sizes, and toilet training takes place at different ages, the training pants must fit bodies in a range of sizes. In addition, incontinent adults use disposable undergarments. Manufacturers of training pants have had to use several different sets
Of manufacturing equipment to produce the range of sizes necessary; however, an improved training pant that fits a broader range of sizes has been developed by Hasse, et. al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 795,560 and is incorporated by reference herein. The Hasse disposable training pant has at least two elasticized ear flaps in the body of the garment to accommodate various sized wearers. It is, therefore, desirable to have a means for opening the pants to quickly and easily remove the soiled pants. Until now, an opening means capable of severing elastic was not available.
Most prior art discloses separable side seams for removal of disposable training pants. Other mechanisms employed for removal of training pants includes breakaway panels and tear strands.
There are several general disadvantages to employing a separable side seam method of panty removal. The primary disadvantage is that the seams must be capable of easy and convenient separation, and yet, the seams must have sufficient strength to prevent premature opening during use. Side seams, particularly at the waistband and leg bands, are subject to the most strain during use; therefore, it would be advantageous to construct the side seams with the single purpose of providing sufficient strength to prevent premature opening. In order to have this single purpose for the side seams, the tear line or separation point for the pants needs to be located somewhere other than at the side seam. The requirement of easy and convenient separation at the side seams automatically limits the amount of strength that may be imparted to the side seam. In addition, tear lines at the side seams require the child to turn to each side in order for the caretaker to grasp the pants with sufficient strength and torque to tear the pants. It would be advantageous to have an opening method that allows the pants to be opened towards the front rather than at the sides.
Known methods of separation at the side seams of disposable training pants include perforation or scoring of the side seam so that either the seam itself fails or the material adjacent to the seam fails when torn. Chain stitching has also been used for separable side seams such that when an end of the stitching is pulled, the seam unravels and the seam separates. An additional method of opening is to insert a breakaway panel in between two seams at one or both of the sides where the breakaway panel is constructed of a weaker material so that this material gives way before the side seam does. Generally, the seaming area disclosed in the prior art is void of any waistband or leg band to avoid interfering with the separability of the pants. A method of removal capable of separating elastic would permit training pants to have continuous elastic bands in the waist and legs providing improved fit and comfort.
The improved training pants disclosed by Hasse in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 795,560, shows an elasticized disposable training pant with a high degree of stretch such that the disposable training pants will comfortably fit wearers in a broad range of sizes. The disposable training pants having at least two, and preferably four, elasticized ear flaps having an elastomeric member secured thereto to form a laminate; and mechanically stretching the laminate so that the ear flap is permanently elongated and the laminate is elastically extensible in the direction of initial stretching, once the initial stretching forces are removed from the laminate.
Accordingly, a disposable training pant is provided having either continuous or non-continuous elastic in the waistband and leg bands, elastic disposed in the pants chassis for facilitating an improved fit for a wider range of sizes, and an opening means that is capable of separating the elastic members therein.
It is an object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants having an improved means of opening the training pants to facilitate removal from the wearer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants which have non-perforated tear lines that can tear through elastic disposed in the waistband, the leg band or pants chassis.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants having non-perforated tear lines which can be imposed on the front of the training pant.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants which are simple and economical to produce.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a disposable training pant having a non-perforated tear line comprising individual bond sites sized, shaped, spaced and arranged such that the tear line has sufficient strength during regular use to prevent premature separation of the pant from the wearer.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a disposable training pant having a non-perforated tear line comprising individual bond sites sized, shaped, spaced and arranged such that the tear line is capable of severing elasticized material, elasticized waist and leg bands and several layers of pants material and elastic members.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a disposable training pant having markers to guide the caretaker to the proper starting point for tearing or for visually enhancing the training pants.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants having a non-perforated tear line which does not require positioning at the side seams of the training pants.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide disposable training pants having the appearance and feel of cloth underwear rather than the appearance and feel of a diaper.